Jurassic World: Dominion (June 10, 2022) (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

I saw it in 3D and that is another reason to call it mostly flat.

The 3D definitely disappointed. Not even particularly effective depth, much less "pop out".

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I didn't hate this movie. I would rank the Jurassic movies as:

1. Jurassic Park
2. Jurassic World
---big jump---
3. Jurassic World Dominion
4. Jurassic park III
5. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
6. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

I'm the rare fan of the franchise that loves Fallen Kingdom, so my rating is as follows:

1. Jurassic Park
2. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
3. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
4. Jurassic World: Dominion
5. Jurassic World
6. Jurassic Park III

I love how Dodgsen and Wayne Knight ended up being killed by the same species.

A great callback that didn't draw too much attention to itself; the movie trusted that the fans who would get it would get it.

The characters from the original movie have some fun stuff and the characters from the new movies get their chance to shine so I still think any fan of the series should check out the movie for themselves and not be dissuaded from seeing it by anyone else's opinion.

I was actually really impressed by how the movie balanced all of the characters given the sheer number of them crammed into this movie. Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm shine more in this movie than they did in any of the other sequels they were involved in. From the World trilogy, Owen, Claire, and Maisie each have meaty storylines.

Zia and Franklin only appear in one sequence at the beginning, but as I understand it that was due to COVID; they shot that sequence before the pandemic shut down production, and they couldn't make the travel work during the pandemic once filming resumed and rewrote their scenes later in the movie for new characters played by actors who were already in the UK.

I'll definitely be purchasing the 4K disc.

I probably will be too, or at least the 4K digital copy. It is, if nothing else, grand spectacle.

I wonder what the filmmakers here have against Tim Cook.

Biosyn comes right from Crichton's original Jurassic Park novel, as the corporate rival to InGen. It got streamlined out of David Koepp's draft of the script, with only Dodgson's interactions with Wayne Knight's character remaining.

The character here doesn't seem to have anything to do with the character that appeared in the first movie, though. Bringing Cameron Thor back was obviously an impossibility, giving that he was serving a six-year prison sentence at the time for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. But if they wanted a Tim Cook lookalike to be this movie's personification of capitalist hubris, why not just give the character a new name? Other than the bottle of shaving cream, and the way he dies, the character has nothing to do with the corporate spy from the first film.

No way is Chris Pratt perfectly lassoing that Dino in the beginning (the shape of its head alone would make it impossible) and with a regular rope. Remember in TWL all the custom gear they had to use to corral the Dinos (and even then it wasn’t easy)

Basically nothing Pratt's character does in any of the Jurassic World movies is plausible given what we were shown in the Jurassic Park trilogy. The Jurassic Park trilogy understood that these are wild animals. The Jurassic World trilogy treats them more like very large, very dangerous livestock.

Blue and Blue Jr. traipsing through the woods while pleasant music plays. I thought raptors were supposed to be scary

That's the other big difference between the Trevorrow movies and the Spielberg movies: The Spielberg movies were horror movies with elements of wonder. The Trevorrow movies are family-friendly adventure movies with brief moments of horror.

Ian Malcolm works for Lewis Dodgston, yeah no (even if he was trying to bring it down from the inside, he’s just apparently waiting for the day that Laura Dern shows up)

My take on it was that Ian Malcolm at that point had basically thrown in the towel, figured humanity was circling the drain any way, so might as well take a cushy gig that will allow him to make all of his child support payments until the end comes. It was only when Ramsay Cole approached him that he reengaged with trying to save the species.

Chris Pratt and the other woman surviving that plane crash without literally a single hair out of place?! F that! Way beyond suspension of disbelief, sorry, find another way to separate Pratt and BDH

One of many Roland Emmerich-esque moments in this movie where the suspension of disbelief is stretched beyond the breaking point and you just have to laugh and go along with it.

Another Apex big bad predator that’s indistinguishable from the last one, Yawn!!

At least the Giganotosaurus was a real dinosaur, though, unlike the Indominus Rex. The species wasn't in the first Jurassic Park because it wasn't identified as a separate species until 1995.

So where Pratt and BDH live, it’s winter because there is snow on the ground, but when they get back at the end with Blue Jr. all the snow has melted, how long between escaping the Tim Cook complex and returning back home? [/SPOILER]

There was a location title indicating that their cabin was somewhere the Sierra Nevada mountains. I'm assuming that there was a time jump between when they escaped the Dolomites and when they actually made it back to the US with Beta. Customs has to be a nightmare when you're transporting dinosaurs across national boundaries.

The young girl who played Maisie (whose only other credit was the last Jurassic movie) was very good. I liked her a lot and thought she stole a lot of scenes. The only problem with her story (and it’s a big one): Why didn’t her genius mother cure herself when she cured her baby? It sure seems like the same kind of genetic manipulation would’ve worked on an adult. And why didn’t she leave more detailed notes so her work could be replicated? They all seemed so surprised by the novelty of her work, but we’re pretty close to this now in real life with tools like CRISPR.

Isabella Sermon is a good actress, and I believed her carrying as much of the movie as she did. But I really disliked where they went with her story. Designer engineering human life is like the ultimate violation of the natural order, a much worse transgression than cooking up reptiles.

I loved how her discovery that she was a clone was the impetus for her to let the dinosaurs out in the world. It felt like a logical consquence of Ben Lockwood and Henry Wu using their genetic engineering technology so cavalierly. Seeing this smart, empathetic little girl carve a life for herself out of her "grandfather's" meglomania felt like a worthwhile story to explore.

And then, at the beginning of the movie when we see her splitting wood using a man-sized axe with a single blow, I thought: Maybe she isn't just a clone. Maybe there's some DNA enhancement in the mix. That would raise its own series of ethical questions.

But instead she's get a mother who loved her and only wanted what was best for her. They sidestepped all of the ethical questions and quandaries to instead go with a story that's I think meant to be heartwarming.

After the last Jurassic World all they needed to do is make a giant monster movie of the escaped Dino’s wrecking havoc and trashing cities, oh and eating people .

That's my biggest disappointment with this one. We've been waiting five movies to see what happens when dinosaurs are dumped into the modern ecosystem, and how that impacts everything up and down the food chain.

And instead of really diving into the implications of that, we get a plot about genetically engineered locusts, the dangers of Monsanto-style interventions into agriculture, and a sanctuary in the Dolemites that is, for all intents and purposes, another park for dinosaurs to break loose from and cause havok.

To the extent that humans and dinosaurs coexisting is addressed at all, it's in that ridiculous final montage where we see all of these dangerous carnivores living in harmony with their prey.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Biosyn comes right from Crichton's original Jurassic Park novel, as the corporate rival to InGen. It got streamlined out of David Koepp's draft of the script, with only Dodgson's interactions with Wayne Knight's character remaining.

The character here doesn't seem to have anything to do with the character that appeared in the first movie, though. Bringing Cameron Thor back was obviously an impossibility, giving that he was serving a six-year prison sentence at the time for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. But if they wanted a Tim Cook lookalike to be this movie's personification of capitalist hubris, why not just give the character a new name? Other than the bottle of shaving cream, and the way he dies, the character has nothing to do with the corporate spy from the first film.

I thought it was silly that they brought back Dodgson - new actor or not - because he was such a minor part of "JP".

Granted, you could argue he was the instigating factor in the first movie's events. If Dodgson doesn't get Nedry to steal for him, then Nedry doesn't cause the havoc that occurs.

But still, making him the main villain of "JW" seems like a stretch. I don't recall any reference to the character at all across the 2nd through 5th movies, and I always thought he was just a corporate stooge, not some dude who'd become a genius CEO.

Was the role better fleshed out in the novel? Haven't read it for decades so I don't recall, but a "JP" fan site implies Dodgson had a larger part in the book...

 

[Johnny Angell]

Anyone seen the 3D version? Worthwhile?

The 3D was nothing to write home about here, if you skip the 3D you’re not missing much. However they did show the trailer for Avatar 2 and it got me thinking “I may actually have to go see this” I have no idea if it actually has a story (you couldn’t tell by the trailer) but it looked good.

We just saw it in 3D, and it really was hard to tell. No jumping pop outs, and only modest depth.

I saw it in IMAX 3D and it might have been the worst presentation I’ve seen in that format. A waste of the 3D format imo.

The 3D definitely disappointed. Not even particularly effective depth, much less "pop out".

Glad I’m not the only one. We just saw it yesterday in a 103 seat theater. It the least 3D I think I’ve eve seen. Why bother? If I had known it was this bad we would have gone with the imax screening.

In all honesty, I didn’t hate Dominion. I was just disappointed and thought that there were a lot of wasted opportunities. On a scale of 1-4 stars I would probably give it 2.

I think this sums it up for me. I love dinosaur movies but Dominion was just “whelming”. It got better when the action picked up. It really was came across as phony when they took about 20 seconds of dialogue to explain that Ellie was “available.”

When we say the young inventor Maisie, I presumed that was a digitally aged versions of the actress. What about the adult, pregnant version. Also digital? The actress who plays her is amazing.

I took the Barbosol can as merely an Easter egg not a plot point. Were there others. Did they sneak in cameos for past cast members? I was disappointed the two original kids weren’t in the movie at all.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Glad I’m not the only one. We just saw it yesterday in a 103 seat theater. It the least 3D I think I’ve eve seen. Why bother? If I had known it was this bad we would have gone with the imax screening.

Agree in spirit, but I'm still glad I went 3D just to support the format.

I don't know if this is a leadup to "Avatar 2" or not, but theaters have been offering waaaay more 3D over the last few months than we'd seen in years.

I've been to 4 3D movies over the last couple of months, and I have tickets to 2 more - "Minions 2" and "Thor 4" - already purchased.

I'm not sure I'd ever gone to 6 3D movies in one year, much less in the first 7 months of a year, much less given the dearth of 3D options in the years pre-COVID.

So I want to vote with my wallet and show there's an audience for 3D.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

When we say the young inventor Maisie, I presumed that was a digitally aged versions of the actress. What about the adult, pregnant version. Also digital? The actress who plays her is amazing.

Adult Charlotte was a different actor.

Isabella Sermon played Maisie/young Charlotte. Elva Trill played adult Charlotte.

I thought it was pretty obvious 2 actors played Charlotte. Never thought adult Charlotte was a digitally-aged Sermon.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don't know if this is a leadup to "Avatar 2" or not, but theaters have been offering waaaay more 3D over the last few months than we'd seen in years.

I’ve seen it reported that Disney is requiring theaters that book their films to provide a certain number of 3D showings if they want to be allowed to book Avatar.

That doesn’t explain Universal titles like Jurassic World, of course.

Anecdotally, my local multiplex had four afternoon showings of Lightyear on the opening day, and one of those was in 3D. The 12:30pm, 2:30pm and 4pm 2D showings sold no advance tickets and at least one of those ran in an empty auditorium. The 1:30pm 3D showing sold at least a dozen advance tickets and was half filled at showtime.

There may not be overwhelming demand for 3D but there is certainly an audience available for it.

 

[Malcolm R]

Universal and WB are the only majors still issuing some 3D blu-rays, so it stands to reason they'd support theatrical too.

 

[SamT]

I enjoyed this a lot. It was a lot better than what I was expecting. Definitely better than Jurassic Park 3 and more fun than the Jurassic World movies. It felt more like a Jurassic Park movie than a Jurassic World movie. It captured the same magic and innocence of the Spielberg movies. I'm glad that we didn't see the same old repeated again. Dinosaurs eating people. It felt different and fresh. I also loved the evil Tim Apple.

 

[Tommy R]

Finally got around to seeing this today. I had to go alone due to childcare issues and the work schedules of my wife and I, but it was fun getting out and finally seeing it. I’ve seen all but the first movie in their original theatrical runs (I was 7 in 1993 and my mom wouldn’t let me see it until it came to video) and I was getting worried I was gonna miss this one.

Overall it was a really fun movie but kind of fell apart a bit in the final half hour or so. Funny because I thought the final half hours were the best parts of the first two Jurassic World movies. But, it was still really fun Dino stuff.

 

[Sam Favate]

Has the date for the 4k/blu-ray been announced yet? Seems like it should be some time in August, right?

 

[dpippel]

Amazon's listing for the 4K UHD shows a release date of 12/31/2022, which probably isn't accurate seeing as it's a Saturday:

 

[Malcolm R]

Yeah, I think that's just a placeholder. I don't think there's any confirmed date yet.

Apparently it's going to jump around on several streaming services (Peacock to Amazon Prime back to Peacock then to Starz), so I'm not sure if that would impact a disc release. I don't think it has in the past, but who knows these days.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Just got the blu, and enjoyed it more than I thought I would, after having read all the reviews.
Watched the extended version, so no idea how it differed from the theatrical one, and the Euro blu has absolutey no extra material, so no background there either.
Loved the idea that Dodgson is the real villain, after six movies, and only so briefly introduced in 1, and thought they brought the old guard back in an nice way. Also some real nice homages to the previous films, like the car turned upside down, the falling down the tree and of course the demise of Dodgson.
Long, yes, but I like my movies long, and a bit slow, and this one delivered.
And, most importantly, Blue got her baby back in the end.

Now, no more, let's quit on top, right?

 

[Chris Will]

This was our Friday night family movie in our house last night. None of us had seen it and we choose to watch the extended edition on Vudu. That may have been a mistake. We have mostly enjoyed the JW films and love JP1. We were all kinda of MST3King this movie by the end.

It was way too long, like probably 45 minutes to an hour too long. The first half of the movie felt like dino porn and pointless. How many dinosaurs doing dinosaurs things can we show with very little story connecting everything. And the “we learn to live together” ending was so eye rolling cheesy. We could not survive peacefully in a world full of dinosaurs. it would turn into a zombie like survival world.

All the character intros, especially the og characters, felt forced. How many times can we say each others names to each other. Ugh!

I didn’t realize that every dinosaur on the planet knew what to do when Pratt held his hand up, after about the 5th time this got annoying and stupid.

The dinosaur cantina scene and chase felt so unnecessary and way too long.

This first half just feels so disjointed and lost, like it doesn’t know what kind of movie it wants to be. They couldn’t decide if they wanted to go small scale hunting movie or large scale monster movie. This is exactly what I feared when they released all the Dinos at the end of Fallen Kingdom.

The only first half parts I liked were the family cabin scenes. They felt like a post apocalyptic movie, last of us/walking dead vibes, and, IMO that should have been the focus. I could have watched a whole movie about this family trying to survive.

I enjoyed the second half of the movie more, once they got to the Biosyn area, this movie’s “park”. I’m like, this is finally a Jurassic movie. Although we didn’t need the locust storyline, the girl could have been the sole catalyst to get us here. This half of the movie was more fun for me and not a chore to sit through. It’s like they made 2 movies and slapped them together.

IMO, have more family cabin in the woods scenes, daughter is kidnapped which gets them to the Biosyn area. Even keep the Blue/beta story, it was a little cheesy but fine. Boom, that’s your movie. Everything else felt like needless filler.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

And the “we learn to live together” ending was so eye rolling cheesy. We could not survive peacefully in a world full of dinosaurs. it would turn into a zombie like survival world.

I feel almost as though this new film doesn’t really deliver on the premise set up by the last few moments of the previous installment - the last movie ended with dinosaurs being set loose on the planet with no contingencies or checks on their existence. That kind of sets up an obvious storyline for this film, with the world in chaos because of that, but this new movie doesn’t really deal with the ramifications of that.

 

[WillG]

This was our Friday night family movie in our house last night. None of us had seen it and we choose to watch the extended edition on Vudu. That may have been a mistake. We have mostly enjoyed the JW films and love JP1. We were all kinda of MST3King this movie by the end.

It was way too long, like probably 45 minutes to an hour too long. The first half of the movie felt like dino porn and pointless. How many dinosaurs doing dinosaurs things can we show with very little story connecting everything. And the “we learn to live together” ending was so eye rolling cheesy. We could not survive peacefully in a world full of dinosaurs. it would turn into a zombie like survival world.

All the character intros, especially the og characters, felt forced. How many times can we say each others names to each other. Ugh!

I didn’t realize that every dinosaur on the planet knew what to do when Pratt held his hand up, after about the 5th time this got annoying and stupid.

The dinosaur cantina scene and chase felt so unnecessary and way too long.

This first half just feels so disjointed and lost, like it doesn’t know what kind of movie it wants to be. They couldn’t decide if they wanted to go small scale hunting movie or large scale monster movie. This is exactly what I feared when they released all the Dinos at the end of Fallen Kingdom.

The only first half parts I liked were the family cabin scenes. They felt like a post apocalyptic movie, last of us/walking dead vibes, and, IMO that should have been the focus. I could have watched a whole movie about this family trying to survive.

I enjoyed the second half of the movie more, once they got to the Biosyn area, this movie’s “park”. I’m like, this is finally a Jurassic movie. Although we didn’t need the locust storyline, the girl could have been the sole catalyst to get us here. This half of the movie was more fun for me and not a chore to sit through. It’s like they made 2 movies and slapped them together.

IMO, have more family cabin in the woods scenes, daughter is kidnapped which gets them to the Biosyn area. Even keep the Blue/beta story, it was a little cheesy but fine. Boom, that’s your movie. Everything else felt like needless filler.

Yeah my impression after I saw it in the theater was that they took like 3 or 4 unused scripts Universal had lying around an stitched them together.

 

[WillG]

I feel almost as though this new film doesn’t really deliver on the premise set up by the last few moments of the previous installment - the last movie ended with dinosaurs being set loose on the planet with no contingencies or checks on their existence. That kind of sets up an obvious storyline for this film, with the world in chaos because of that, but this new movie doesn’t really deal with the ramifications of that.

It reminds me of the cool twist ending of Halloween 4 and then Halloween 5 virtually ignoring all that to deliver just a bizarre story

 

[Alex...]

Finally got around to watching this, great to see the the original cast back together.

My rating 4/5

 

[Jason_V]

Finally got around to watching this, great to see the the original cast back together.

My rating 4/5

We must have been watching at nearly the same time. My dog and I just finished the movie, lol. It’s been hard finding time to watch it…my fiancé is not into movies like this normally and we’ve been busy for a lot of reasons since I got this one on digital a few months back.

Too many storylines which coalesce into a big nothing burger. Most of the major plots get wrapped up in a voiceover at the end. Glad I got to finish the franchise, but I can’t see myself coming back to this one for the foreseeable future.